1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser driver circuit, to a method for controlling a laser driver circuit, and to a use thereof.
2. Description of the Background Art
For drives in which compact discs are provided as storage media, laser semiconductor diodes are used to read information from the storage media or to write said information. Laser diodes are needed in different wavelength ranges depending on the employed storage medium technology. Defined light pulses emitted by the laser diode are needed to read or write information on a storage medium. The pulses in this case must be matched to the employed laser diode and the employed storage medium. A matching of this type can be described as a write strategy in the case of a writing process.
To be able to drive an output current for the laser diode, multiple individual currents are summed to form a current pulse before amplification, so that a single amplifier provides the output current. The area of the output amplifier on the semiconductor chip is determined by the level of the maximum output current. The individual currents can also be amplified separately and after the amplification summed in each case by an amplifier. The area of each amplifier is thereby to be designed for the maximum output current of the same. In bipolar technology, a mutual output amplifier can be easily realized, whereas in CMOS technology output amplifiers for the required high speed are realized with an essentially different circuit technology than in bipolar technology.